


Linked in Life and Love Gaiden

by hatless_nuance



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Fanwork of Fanwork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28231587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hatless_nuance/pseuds/hatless_nuance
Summary: A likely event adjacent to the main story of l_OmegaInfinity_l's fic, Linked in Life and Love. If nothing else, inspired by that story, and follows Chapter 51 (aka "Linked in Life and Love - Act III: Family Rights Chapter 15") of it most directly. It would happen if Beacon is not destroyed in the next four months in-story.
Relationships: Coco Adel/Velvet Scarlatina
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Linked in Life and Love Gaiden

**Author's Note:**

  * For [l_OmegaInfinity_l](https://archiveofourown.org/users/l_OmegaInfinity_l/gifts).



> This was, to use the author's own words, a "Plot Bunny" I got from reading this story. I appreciate the author's work, and hope only that I capitalized the related in-universe terminology properly, and that the short story is fitting and/or enjoyable.

As Coco returned from training one day, partway into her third year at Beacon Academy, she Felt her girlfriend before she saw her. The happiness was almost overwhelming. Entering her dorm room, she called out “Hey Velvet. What’s got you jumping for joy?”

Working over her desk, fiddling with small tools, Velvet was hunched over in deep focus. However, between the emotions coming over the Link, and her ears perking up, Coco knew she had noticed her. Velvet took another few seconds to adjust something, set her tools down, and stood up. Turning slowly, she smiled brightly, and ran over to Coco.

“I got it to work!” She said, practically shaking with her enthusiasm. “I got the idea I had a few months ago to work! I actually made a stable focus and everything, can produce sixteen aligned repeatable forms, and even the pressure works on the…”

“Woah now, Vel,” Coco grabbed Velvet’s shoulders to steady both of them and calm her down. “Which idea was this again? I know you were working on several different things, but which object needed a stable focus, forms, or anything else?” Velvet stopped shaking, sighed a bit, but looked back at Coco incredulously. Coco continued “I understood at least some of that, but it sounds like what you mention sometimes when you talk about Anesidora and your Semblance. Does it have to do with that?”

Velvet briefly tilted her head in thought, before smiling. “A bit. I actually figured out a fun trick involving hard light Dust. If you shape the crystal in certain ways, it can stay stable even when Aura is applied. While this only really works with very small shapes, it allows repeatable projection of a specific form, even from different auras. This allows for the forming of a consistent projected form.”

Coco nodded before replying. “Really? Repeatedly being able to project a single form in hard light? That does sound interesting. Although, how small is ‘very small shapes’, in this case?”

“About two cubic centimeters.”

“Vel, that’s really not much.”

“But it’s enough!” Velvet chirped while bouncing. “It also is worth noting that I specifically got a setup where, while that is the biggest individual shape size that can be projected, I can get sixteen of the shape I want at once, in a very specific pattern. That means I can get the projected setup solid and even filter raw aura through it.”

“Hang on,” Coco asked, tilting her shades down a bit. “Filtering raw aura through small hard light constructs? With a repeated form? What would be the use of this, exactly?”

Velvet grinned, and simply pointed to her neck.

Coco’s eyes widened slightly, not sure what her Mate pointing at her Mark meant in this context, until she realized that Velvet was also making a biting motion while pointing at the Mate’s Mark. Velvet only stopped the motion when she Felt Coco’s realization.

“Teeth?”

“Yep!” Velvet ran back over to her desk, and picked something up. She then wrapped an odd band of wires, metal, and a single rounded dust crystal with odd markings on it around her right hand, tying and attaching various small parts and points, before holding it up to show her girlfriend. “Here’s the current form.”

Velvet focused her aura into her hand, then into the hard light dust crystal in the device attached to her palm. From the crystal, just a centimeter away or so, a set of shapes formed in a projected layout. They were not perfectly shaped, but each shape was still readily identified as a tooth, and the pattern did resemble upper and lower teeth layout, for the front eight teeth that would be on each layer.

Coco removed her glasses and leaned in for a closer look. “Are these hard light teeth stable, or do they break under pressure?”

Velvet started explaining. “The teeth are actually strong enough to bite into food. I tested out with an apple, and also layers of cardboard. They need to just be strong enough to pierce skin, after all. They don’t need to pierce metal or anything.”

Coco nodded. “So this involves the Mate Mark, then? You could use the teeth to bite into someone?”

“Yes!” Velvet cheered, throwing her hands up, almost clipping Coco in her enthusiasm. She then blushed before bringing her hand back down. “I have gotten the teeth to last for up to ten minutes while focusing, and I have been planning to hook up an aura sensor to this whole unit. If the teeth last that long, created by aura while filtering it out, they could be used to apply a Mate’s Mark to someone.” Outright beaming, Velvet went on with “It would allow even those who can’t apply a Mate’s Mark themselves to apply one.”

Coco could only whistle at the thought. Thinking back, her Mating process had been awkward, given it had involved, by necessity, getting another Faunus to bite Velvet. More than the pain of the bite Velvet had endured, the fact that Blake Belladonna and Weiss Schnee had been involved was the most embarrassing thing to remember about that event. She regretted none of it, of course, and considered them nothing but the best of friends, but it was still strange to consider even now.

Velvet was trying to make a device that would remove that awkwardness, and perhaps even allow squeamish or injured Faunus to more easily make Mate’s Marks. Such a device being widely available could change the views of such Matings, by making them more accessible.

“…wait.” Coco mused. “Does this also mean that a human could use this to mark a Faunus entirely on their own?”

“Uh huh,” Velvet said while nodding. “That was actually why the aura sensor would be necessary. The sensing of the point where our auras were properly mixed is something I, and other Faunus, can do by instinct, but humans don’t have that instinct. But with these projected teeth and a sensor to tell them when to stop adding aura, a human could not only mark a Faunus.” Velvet smirked and dropped the projection. “Two humans could even Mate to each other, no Faunus involved.”

Coco’s jaw dropped at that. Mate marks on human-only pairings or groups? _That _would cause a stir at the societal level. And yet, given how the Mating process had helped her bond so well to her beloved, and how she had heard from Blake that a failed mating could be a good thing in a sense, if it ensured a couple that was not compatible would not stay together, she immediately thought of how that could change dating in general. She slowly shut her mouth, gulped at the implications and thoughts swirling in her head, and looked her Mate square in the eyes.__

__“Vel,” she said. “This idea of yours. Have you patented it yet? Or told anyone else?”_ _

__“Um, no?” Velvet’s confusion broadcast across the Link clearly. “I have only been experimenting with it for a short while, after all, and you’re the only one I’ve even explained this much to. I was happy when you got back because this was the first day I was able to make the projections stable the whole time they were active. I know it wouldn’t mean much to us personally, but I thought of the story that inspired Blake and Weiss in the first place, and wondered if it could be made so that equal Matings could work even with no other Faunus, or blank Marks.” Velvet smiled again. “I’m not sure there would be any sort of wide interest in the device anyway, as it is so situational, and…”_ _

__“No!” Coco cut her off, now radiating excitement herself. “Velvet, dear, you are not thinking big enough here! If you can patent, perfect, and make available this device, it would open up Mating as an option to just about everyone in the world. Any combination of human and Faunus couples or groups could experience what we have, what Faunus in general have always had. Don’t you see what that would mean?!”_ _

__Velvet just tilted her head._ _

__“It would mean,” Coco went on saying, “that one of the most important ideas to Faunus culture would become comprehensible to humans. Humans would not only be able to understand each other better, but they could, collectively, understand _Faunuskind_ better! And that could make Faunus more accepted and included in all societies,” Coco grinned wildly. “Who knows, this could even make dating and engagement more effective and workable, across and within peoples. Mated couples have a much lower divorce rate for a reason, after all.”__

____Now Velvet’s jaw dropped. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she said, “…I hadn’t thought that far ahead. You’re right. There would be a demand for this.” She looked up, now determined. “I can make this work. I can make this device to help people, and share the wonderful state we have with the world. If Mating became the universal norm for close relationships…” Looking at her device, she started daydreaming._ _ _ _

____Coco looked at Velvet, stepped over, and before anything else, embraced and kissed her. Velvet went through an emotional roulette, calmed, and kissed back, all in the span of three second. After holding the kiss for a while, they parted their lips, and Coco spoke. “You know, you’re cute when you get really into your work.”_ _ _ _

____Velvet just blushed, deeper than before. “So what should I do about the patenting? And given what you said about helping Faunus gain more acceptance, should I focus more on this, or…” Coco silenced her with a finger to her lips._ _ _ _

____“Vel,” Coco sighed. “Of course you can keep up being a Huntsman and make it big as an inventor. Besides, for this invention, I think you need my personal help.”_ _ _ _

____“Oh really?” Velvet raised one eyebrow. “I never took you for a technical type.”_ _ _ _

____“Not that.” Coco said in reply. “I mean that you need to work in that aura sensor you mentioned, and also, the device needs to both look stylish and be easy to use.” She smirked before continuing, “You have to consider aesthetics and convenience, especially for mass appeal. _That_ is my specialty. Form and function both can sell an item, and an idea, to people. We work together, make this device work while we continue our other training and efforts, we could make it big.” She hugged Velvet tighter. “Maybe even make our own small company. Interested?”___ _

______Velvet smiled much more softly, hugging back. “Of course. We have a lot more work to do between us, then.” Her ears tilting forward, but in contentment, Velvet started daydreaming again. “Maybe this idea can really change the world…”_ _ _ _ _ _


End file.
